In his first appearance, Varan is a monster that lives in a saltwater lake within the Kunishiroshima valley, where he is known to the natives as Baradagi-Sanjin. He kills an expedition duo and then completely destroys the village. The monster proceeds to attack Tokyo and is seemingly unstoppable until he is tricked by the military into eating bombs.

Varan reappears in Destroy All Monsters living on Monsterland with many other kaiju including Godzilla. Varan is seen in the climax, joining the other Earth monsters to fight against the King Ghidorah, though he does not actually participate in the fight. After King Ghidorah is killed, Varan, along with the other kaiju return to Monsterland.

In one of the early drafts of what would become Godzilla vs. Gigan, Varan was to have joined Godzilla and Rodan in defending the Earth against King Ghidorah, Gigan, and a new monster that had never been seen before with the name Mogu.[1]
Shusuke Kaneko, director of the popular HeiseiGamera trilogy had originally considered Varan, along with Anguirus to star in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack as antagonists to Godzilla. Varan and Anguirus were however replaced with the far more popular Mothra and King Ghidorah.[2] Supposedly, the suit designer tried to compromise by giving some of Varan's facial features to King Ghidorah.

Varan made his first playable video game appearance in the Wii version of Godzilla: Unleashed as an Earth Defender. He is given the ability to fire a sonic beam and a concentrated sonic energy ball. He has a gliding ability that works much like Rodan's flying, he can be unlocked by destroying the three purple objects on the Vortaak mothership while playing as an Alien.